Utility boxes, such as electric meter boxes, are typically secured to prevent unauthorized access to the meter. Many of such boxes are secured through the use of split ring that is placed directly around the meter and locked through the use of a barrel lock. Other utility boxes, referred to as “ringless” boxes, do not include a lockable meter ring. Ringless boxes are secured by placing a lock assembly containing a barrel lock on either a side wall or a bottom wall of the box.
In either case, utility personnel and contractors hired to install barrel locks are given security keys to do so. Each utility, however, has only one key combination so a single key can gain access to ever lock in the entire system. Moreover, these keys are at times lost or stolen which creates a security problem for the utility company.
Furthermore, installation with a key is slower and therefore more costly than installing a pre-loaded lock. Installation of a split ring and barrel lock with the use of a barrel lock key involves multiple steps including, inserting the key into lock, activating the key and removing the lock, installing the ring onto the meter, inserting the lock into the meter ring and reactivating and removing the key.
In view of the above, known barrel locks are often preloaded into meter rings. Known preloaded locks, however, are limited to “plunger” style barrel locks. Plunger style barrel locks generally have a hollow barrel with a plunger that reciprocates axially within a bore of the barrel to lock or unlock the barrel lock. While plunger style barrel locks can offer security and variety of different lock mechanisms, design impediments exist which limit the number of possible configurations. Moreover, it may be possible to defeat plunger locks to gain unauthorized access to a meter box.
Certain rotatable disk style barrel locks present a solution to the inherent limitations of a plunger style barrel lock. An example of such a lock is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,086,631, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Known rotatable disk barrel locks are not, however, preloadable.
With the forgoing concerns in mind, it is the general object of the present invention to provide a preloaded rotatable disk barrel lock that eliminates the need for an installation key thereby providing a level of security unavailable with known locks. Moreover, it is a general object to provide a preloaded rotatable disk barrel lock which simplifies and expedites the installation process by eliminating the need for a key.